Perpetua and Felicity were Christians martyred around the year 203 in Carthage in North Africa.  Perpetua was a recently married noblewoman about 22 years old when she died, and the mother of an infant son she was nursing. Felicity was a slave expecting a child when she was martyred with  Perpetua and several other people.  

Almost all of the first three centuries of Christianity is marked by stories of martyrdom. One thing striking about Perpetua is that she seems to have kept a diary describing her arrest and imprisonment. It is one of the earliest writings by a Christian woman.

I am struck by the virulence of the persecution of Christians. The powers-that-be hated the new religion. Maybe it was because it challenged the established order. Maybe it was because Christianity gave people hope, something not high on wish-lists of tyrants. Whatever the reasons, persecutions were real, yet Christianity survived leading one early Christian, Tertullian, to declare, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.”

Nowadays some people think Christians are being persecuted if a store clerks says “Happy Holidays” instead of  “Merry Christmas.” Balderdash! However, real persecutions do take place. Try being a Christian in North Korea.

This day might be a good time to remember martyrs like Perpetua and her companions, and to pray for those who suffer for their faith today. And we might consider if we, too, have had to pay a price for believing in Jesus Christ (and I’m not talking about money in an envelope in the offering plate).

Read Matthew 5:10-12 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne